The Arts

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Artist's portraits of women confrontational, challenging

By: Alison Gillmor

Posted: 02/25/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Paintings by Arlea Ashcroft: left, I'm a Mess; centre, Broken Window; above, Deny the Fear. (WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

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I'm a Mess by Arlea Ashcroft. (WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

ART REVIEW

Iron Maidens
by Arlea Ashcroft
High Octane Gallery, 445 River Ave.
Until March 14

This brash new exhibit at the High Octane Gallery attempts to counteract centuries of dewy, idealized images of femininity.

Given the crushing weight of art history, that's not really something that can be accomplished in one show. But Winnipeg artist Arlea Ashcroft does her darnedest, with aggressive technique, in-your-face subject matter and a whole lot of screw-you attitude.

The results are uneven but undeniably ferocious.

Ashcroft is a multimedia creative dynamo and woman-about-town, having worked in theatre, film and music. (She's maybe best known as the guitarist Battered Shrimp with the local all-girl punk band Shrimp). A self-taught painter, she's been creating portraits of real-life "iron maidens" for the past two years.

In her confessional artist's statement, Ashcroft admits that she once spent most of her time hanging out with men. She had little use for female friendship, viewing it as a snare of sly sexual competition and weird emotional drama. Lately, though, she's reversed that position and come to respect and rely on the women in her life. Ashcroft's newfound appreciation for the sisterhood finds fierce expression in this ode to tough, angry, unconventional women.

Working from snapshots -- often the kind of half-drunk party pics that show up on Facebook -- Ashcroft exaggerates certain details to get to the core of her subject. Most of the women are caught in confrontational close-up, often yelling and giving the camera the finger. Drama Queen sprouts devil horns, while the red-haired woman in I'm a Mess wears a button that says just that.

There are lots of subculture trappings -- vinyl bustiers and goth jewelry and fetish-wear like PVC masks and dog collars. A piece called Barracuda depicts some obscure erotic action in a public washroom.

On one level, Ashcroft is documenting a specific social scene. In a larger sense, she's challenging the usual dynamic of western art, in which woman is a passive object offered up to a male viewer. In Showgrrrl, a statuesque woman on a stage refuses her role as obliging sexual spectacle by confronting her leering audience.

Ashcroft backs up this antagonistic stance with her painting technique, which is deliberately off-putting. Working acrylics and oils in garish, glaring colours, using harsh lines and sharp angles, Ashcroft keeps the viewer on edge.

Clearly, these women aren't meant to be pretty pictures. As Ashcroft writes in her statement: "They scream, they hurt, they love, they are human."

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 25, 2010 D5

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